I mentioned Hotel Paracas in my last post as this was my base while exploring the Ballestas Islands nearby and the Nazca Lines a bit south of there by Cessna plane. (See the tour story on Ballestas and Nazca here.)

You often see luxury hotels referred to as a jewel, a diamond in the rough, or an oasis. It happens so often that in travel writing classes they tell you to avoid these terms altogether at the risk you’ll sound like a hack. But if I were to use those terms, this fine resort, run by Libertador, would fit the description. Here’s a video tour so you can get a feel for the place. For more details, see our review of Hotel Paracas.

Most travelers to Peru are on a well-worn path, often trying to do too much in too little time. Those who take the time to go slower, however, soon find out that there’s more to Peru than one wonder of the world. The country has incredible diversity in climate, landscape, and attractions.

We just posted a travel story on one side tour that only a fraction of Peru’s visitors experience, but is definitely worth doing if you can fit it in: the Ballestas Islands by boat and the Nazca Lines by air. You can do all this from Paracas (and stay at the striking Hotel Paracas as a base). That town is only three hours south of Lima. Few people want to spend more than a couple nights in Lima anyway, so this is a good trip to do at the beginning or the end.

The Ballestas Islands can be visited in the course of a couple hours. It’s a collections of islets and rocky outcrops in the sea, with nearly every semi-flat surface covered with wildlife. Photo ops galore. You can go on a group boat, which is fine, and it’s a bargain. To do it in style though, visit the tour office in Hotel Paracas and charter their yacht to take you there on your schedule.

That company will also arrange a Nazca Lines tour, leaving from the nearby airport in Pisco. Again it’s about two hours: flying time to get down there, an hour seeing the lines from the air, then the trip back. It’s a bizarre landscape down below even before you get to the lines, the kind of place where you look down and think, “If I got dropped off there, I’d die in no time.” A far cry from the lush Andes or the jungle.

These strange lines have been here for some 2,300 years, but the reason they’re so fascinating is that you can really only see them from the air. So nobody could check the progress as the work was going on. This one pictured here is kind of crude, but some of the others are incredibly intricate and well-designed.

See the full story here: Touring the Ballestas Islands and Nazca Lines of Peru

In my many years of writing about hotels around the world, I can’t ever remember one opening earlier than scheduled. Until May, that is, when I visited the new Westin Lima in the San Isidro business district. A few weeks before I had scheduled a “hard hat tour” of the facility. By the time I arrived, the place was open and staffed up, with guests in some of the rooms already.

That’s a sign of this organization having its act together and it bodes well for the future. This new hotel, the tallest building in the country of Peru, is a partnership between two key players. The owner is the Libertador company, which has stepped up its game considerably in the past few years, opening Tambo del Inka and Hotel Paracas—both stunning properties. Running the place is Starwood, which has more international convention experience and a deep bench of managers used to serving business guests from around the world. Plus this gets them tapped into the Westin reservation system and lets all those Starwood loyalty points junkies either earn points or cash in.

This is a beautiful hotel, thanks in part to the Tony Chi interiors and thanks also to the huge budget they had to work with. Everything is shiny, new, and beautiful and all the facilities are top-notch, from the spa to the indoor pool to the striking bars. When the weather is clear—a rarity in Lima unfortunately—every room has a city view.

See photos and our full review of Westin Lima.

Gabriel Alvarez is Deputy General Manager of Aranwa Hotels Resorts & Spas, a growing hotel developer that is ridingthe wave of expanding tourism in Peru and the rapidly developing economies of Latin America. I’ve talked before about the booming tourism business in Peru and wanted to get his insiders’ take on what’s happening in this dynamic destination.

Luxury Latin America: What was the spark that got you started with the Aranwa Hotels projects? What led up to that?

Gabriel Alvarez: Travelling around Peru, seeing the lack of high quality hotels and tourism infrastructure in its different regions was an eye-opener. We realized we had the service and healthcare know-how as an advantage from our competitors and it was a very interesting opportunity. Also, my family’s passion for art, culture and wellness (expressed in our healthcare upbringing) definitely contributed towards the signature approach we bring to hospitality.

Peru tourism seems to keep growing each year, no matter what is going on in the worldwide economy. Why is that?

The country has had over a decade of sustained political stability and overall economic growth. This has contributed to place Peru in the international scene, exposing our greatest strengths in the eyes of the world. For instance, Machu Picchu continues to amaze the world, as the lost city of the Incas. It is a great cultural heritage which attracts people everywhere.

In order to continue growing, more product differentiation is needed, and we should not only focus on country brand, but on inner workings, learn from experience and from other countries such as Mexico.

We have a review of your Aranwa Cusco hotel, of course, but naturally you would like to get people to spend more time at the one in the Sacred Valley. What advantages are there for tourists of staying in the valley instead of just passing through?

The first thing one will notice about the valley is the lower altitude and how much easier it is to walk around than in the city of Cusco, we’re talking 2800 meters against 3500 meters. That enables one’s body to acclimate and after a couple of days in the valley you can take on Cusco easily. Further, most of the archeological sites in the “top 5″ places to visit are in the Sacred Valley, such as the Pisac Market, Maras Salt Mines, Moray amphitheatre, Ollantaytambo, and the train to Machu Picchu. Tourists can save lots of transportation time if they stay in the Sacred Valley rather than in Cusco. Adventure activities such as rafting, hiking and the intrepid Via Ferrata are new additions on top of the usual ones.

If you look at it from a wellness perspective, then the valley is definitely your top choice. The area is called “sacred” because of the climate it has and how crops are easily able to grow and flourish within. What is more, in colonial times women from Cusco used to go to the valley to give birth, as the experience was much more manageable. The town of Urquillos, next to our property, has a mud that is well known for its healing properties. Hence, for wellness-focused extended stays, which we provide, the valley is an ideal location.

Continued – See the rest of our interview with Gabriel Alvarez of Aranwa Hotels

Libertador Hotel Paracas in Peru

Latin America has been on a roll this whole time that everyone has been crying the blues in the rest of the world about low occupancy rates at hotels. Sure, some pockets are still down, but hotels are going up at a frantic pace in Peru and Colombia.

The Sacred Valley Gets Flooded…with Hotels

Nicholas Gill, who has written many of our reviews on luxury hotels in Peru, wrote this informative article for another publication: A Look Inside Peru’s Hotel Boom.

If you’ve been subscribing to our newsletter or following this blog, you know we’ve posted reviews of the most notable ones soon after they opened: Libertador Hotel Paracas, Tambo del Inka in the Sacred Valley, and Aranwa hotels in both the Sacred Valley and Cusco.

Libertador and Starwood are jointly opening a big Westin in Lima that will be the highest building in the country—I may be able to give a hard hat report when I’m there in late May. But wait, there’s more! Orient-Express is revamping a hotel they bought in the Sacred Valley. Plus the article says, “Chilean chain Explora and Marriott Hotels and Resorts are in the process of completing hotels in the area and Four Seasons and Aman Resorts also have expressed interest.”

Chain Hotels Pour Into Bogata, Colombia

Meanwhile, another contributor of ours, Mark Chesnut, wrote this piece for the Latin Business Chronicle -Columbia: Bogata Hotel Boom.

The international chains apparently feel just fine about Colombia now. A new JW Marriott just opened (we’ll have a review of it soon) and here’s who’s on the way: Ibis, Sonesta, Hilton, and Holiday Inn. As it stands now, 578 rooms will come online this year alone in Bogata. Plus Cali just got its first luxury hotel—we’ll have a detailed review of that up in the next month as well.

For now, see our reviews of the best luxury hotels in Colombia.